Alas! it was strangely changed. A stone wall
supplied the place of the old briar-hedge, and shrubs had grown up into
trees, shadowing the door and window, whilst moss and ivy covered the
walls and roof. With a trembling hand he knocked at the lowly door. The
lattice was opened, and a strange face came to answer his inquiries.
"Does not the Frau Gensfleisch live here?" asked the stranger with a
faltering voice.
"The Frau Gensfleisch," said the woman; "nay, my good friend, the Frau
Gensfleisch has left our village this many a day. Maybe she lives now in
the town, or maybe she is dead; I cannot tell thee which."
The traveller turned away.
Frau Gensfleisch, however, was not dead. Finding that the care of her
little fields and vineyard was more than she was able to manage in her
declining years, she sold her cottage and land, and returned into the
town of Mainz to live, so that she might be near the Father Gottlieb,
who was now the only relation she had left besides her absent son. To
the good Father she could at least talk about Hans, and he was able
sometimes to cheer her fading hopes, by telling her that the day might
yet come when Hans would return to spend the rest of his life with her.
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